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Ohio officials take 200-pound boy from mother
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press
Obesity Study: State-By-State Figures

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The case of an 8-year-old Cleveland Heights boy taken from his family because he weighs more than 200 pounds has renewed a debate on whether parents should lose custody if a child is severely obese.
The boy was removed from his family and was placed in foster care in October after county case workers said his mother wasn't doing enough to control his weight. The boy, at his weight, is considered at risk for developing such diseases as diabetes and high blood pressure. Government growth charts say most boys his age weigh about 60 pounds.
Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese - weighing significantly more than what's considered healthy.
Cuyahoga County removed the boy because case workers considered the mother's inability to get his weight down a form of medical neglect. The county's Children and Family Services agency said Monday it stood by its custody move, which was approved by a judge.
"We have worked very hard with this family for 20 months before it got to this point," agency Administrator Patricia Rideout said.
Rideout said the issue has created a buzz among agency staff members and she has heard it was a popular Internet item. She said she was following state law in withholding the boy's name in his best interest.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity tries to address the roles of nutrition and physical activity in improving public health and preventing and controlling chronic diseases. It says achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is part of an ongoing lifestyle that can be adopted. It offers resources to help people determine which foods are needed for a healthy diet and promotes regular physical activity to reduce the risk for diseases and control weight.
There's no easy answer when it comes to determining who's to blame in such obesity cases, said Dr. Naim Alkhouri, who works with overweight children and their families at Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital and leads its pediatric metabolic clinic.
"It's not only the parents or the child," he said. "Obesity is an epidemic in the United States. As a society we're all responsible."
It's not enough to just encourage some children to eat healthier and exercise, he said, because there's also "a big psychological component."
"When it comes to involving the authorities, I don't think we have clear guidelines," he said. "Starting the debate is a good thing. We need more guidance on how to react to the issue."
County workers were alerted to the boy's weight early last year after his mother took him to a hospital for breathing problems. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea, which is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep and can be weight-related, and he was given a breathing machine.
Parents have lost custody of obese children a few times in the United States, and an opinion piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July said putting children temporarily in foster care is in some cases more ethical than obesity surgery, which can involve removing part of the stomach.
Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital Boston, said the point isn't to blame parents but rather to act in children's best interest and get them help their parents can't provide.
Dr. Norman Fost, a medical ethicist at the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus, said Monday that foster care wouldn't cure the Ohio boy's obesity but might help.
"The goal is to make him less obese," he said.
Fost said the boy's sleep apnea could be related to his weight and could be imminently dangerous. A target weight of 150 pounds might improve the apnea problem, he said.
The boy's mother said she has worked on the weight issue.
"They are trying to make it seem like I am unfit, like I don't love my child," she told The Plain Dealer newspaper, which didn't reveal her identity because the case could involve abuse.
A public defender, Sam Amata, said Monday the custody removal would be challenged based on the contention that the boy is not in imminent danger.
"We don't feel there's that kind of requisite danger," he said

I find this....funny.....should have goten a football instead of a Xbox360/PS3

I read this and immediately thought back to this:

I have a little cousin who's gotten to be pretty obese.

It's funny, because growing up his father was a proper asshat to me. And one day I said. "You'll get yours coming."

Now he revels in the knowledge he's a terrible parent with a kid whos like 220 pounds and only 12.

Got any popcorn??

couldn't click the play button there Stompa....that...scares me...like I rather go into a shoot out armed with a dusty blunt tea spoon and wearing two rubberbands and peanut shell

It's worth watching, purely to puzzle why her mother was not charged.

And also to wonder at the people writing in to the tv show to talk about the 'brave' little girl. I don't quite understand why her becoming massive through the gross stupidity and lazy parenting of her idiot bovine mother qualifies her for bravery but there you go.

Might be heavily tempted to shoot the mom

Honest legal question for the adults/parents out there.

If you get your child so fat that they begin having severe/life threatening illness and disease, is it child endangerment?

Chowderhead wrote:Honest legal question for the adults/parents out there.

If you get your child so fat that they begin having severe/life threatening illness and disease, is it child endangerment?

When I worked in Child Protection in the UK, it certainly contributed in cases where a charge of neglect was brought against the parent/s.

Do believe so. Parents should be fully aware on what a kid eat since its the parents putting the food on the table

Chowderhead wrote:

If you get your child so fat that they begin having severe/life threatening illness and disease, is it child endangerment?

Yes, but it seems a very abstract thing to most parents of overweight children.

My wife does weight loss research and weight counseling (specializes in family weight loss), and you would be surprised how many parents don't equate a kid being overweight with a failure on their part. . They view it in a very abstract fashion.

Also some ethnicities see a chubby baby as healthier which adds another barrier to getting them to adopt healthier eating habits early before weight becomes an issue.

It is a mixture of denial, ignorance, ethnic/family tradition, absebtee parenting, lack of long term thinking and other factors most times...

Just to clarify: Type 2 diabetes is mostly linked with being overweight.

Also to clarify at 6'1'' his weight is near enough to my ideal weight! Which is scary as I'm 25!

I was a lazy bastard as a kid.

I ate as much food as I could.

My parents simply never let me do what I wanted to (namely veg out and play video games).

Every weekend I was helping my father do SOMETHING (I was a tools carrier / fetcher from the time I was like 10), and my mother always forced me to play little league / soccer.

Helped me keep the weight down while I was a kid, and I am thankful for that. Granted, I kinda messed up when I got to college and went back to old habits, but at that points my parents did all they could.

The point is, if you have fat kids, its YOUR FAULT as a parent. Just force them to help you do chores, and drag them out of the house to play in after school sports. Thats pretty much all the activity a kid needs, in addition to school, to keep the weight down. Of course if you just feed the kid and ignore him, its child abuse, and its going to cause him to get fat.

*sigh* sometimes I hate my city.

I read about this a day or two ago. The mom is an idiot for letting her kid get that big.

I'm 5'10'' 250 pounds, and while I don't find myself obese or unable to do physical things I enjoy, I'm unhappy with my weight (was a bit larger a year ago). But dang, this kid is 50 pounds less than me, and I've got 15 years on him.

Also, this is my fear if I am ever a parent. I'm not one to enjoy vegetables and a "balanced" diet, but I would hate if my life style impacted my kid like this.

Put down the nuggets, pick up the greens...

Youd be surprised how easy it is to actually keep your children, at a healthy weight. I too would be lying if I said I have healthy eating habits, they are ALOT better then say a year ago, and Ive dropped a nice chunk of weight, but Im still over weight by more then I should be. But both my kids are in fantastic shape. Why? Because the wife and I actually give a damn about them not making bad life decisions. And yea, if you ask me, the parents should be at fault for such a thing, its completely their fault IMO.

One thing that's always grated me was parents who just push their kids outside and expect magic to happen. As in they have this thought process where if the kid is outside they'll find things to do that keeps them fit and athletic. Growing up I loved working with electronics. When my dad would push me outside, do you know what I did? Nothing. It was boring sitting there by myself, and taking a stab at being a woodland strider is only fun for so long before that becomes boring.

Parents need to do stuff with their kids instead of just expecting their kids to find everything they need outside.

Now that I know how it feels, I one up my parents by being a superior grown up figure to my nephew. When I go out to the mall, he comes with me. If I hit the skatepark, he comes with me. As soon as I feel he's old enough to take a paintball round to the throat and still play instead of crying, you're damn right he's coming with me. Even with all the things we go out and do, I still feel that I could be spending more time with him an doing things. He's not my kid though, so it's not so bad. I'm content being his kickarse uncle.

It absolutely IS child abuse. If a child under ten is obese, its the parents fault. Who else is at fault? The government?

Take the kid off them.

feth, send them round to my house, Ill put the little guttersnipes on a gruel, tapwater and work diet and send them home rake thin. I will also lower their blood pressure, increase their life expectancy, and allow them to see their feet. No need to thank me, you have to be cruel to be kind but Im well aware that the vast majority of the population are too spineless to say "no" to their little cherubs despite the fact that their lack of backbone is killing their children.

And no your spoilt rotten, disgustingly overweight 80lb 3 year old child marching up and down the aisles being a fething nuisance on my 11 hour flight to California isn't "cute" he is a disgusting fatbody and frankly I'm stunned that I appear to be the villain of the piece when I tell you to wedge the nurgling between your own seats before I lock him in the luggage rack.

*sigh*

Once again Matty has hit the nail on the head. The number of obese kiddies waddling up an down is getting scary.
And not just in America, it's a pretty big problem here as well.
"How are we gonna stop the little gak yelling Jordan?"
"I know Romeo, let's buy an xbox 360 and his own bodywieght in 99p store pick n mix, that should keep him quiet for ohhhhh 30 minutes or so"

It's disgusting. Also not helping is the complete removal of Home Economics classes and general cookery skills from our schools. It's pointless having a degree in molecular science when you can't even boil an egg.....

All the kids need to do is to eat regular healthy meals and exercise. But it also helps that you body burns almost all that you eat without you lifting a finger.